Vi Gå över Daggstänkta Berg

Vi gå över daggstänkta berg ("We walk over dew-sprinkled mountains") is a Swedish folk song, whose lyrics was written by Olof Thunman. The melody is of disputed origin, page 92 but is attributed to Edwin Ericsson.

Background

Olof Thunman was an enthusiastic hiker and well known in the areas around Uppsala where he hiked in his steel-shod ski boots, suit and overcoat. He was inspired by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau for whom walking was a necessity of life and not a question of movement. He wrote the hiking song "We go over dew-sprinkled mountains" in 1900 when he was 21 years old. Different versions of the origin of the song exist, but according to Ellenius, it was created after a happy evening at the railway hotel in Flen. Thunman was serving as tutor to the sons of bank director Henning Ericsson in Flen, and he had spent a summer evening in 1900 at the hotel restaurant with the oldest son Edwin and station writer Hjalmar Hökberg, which ended with a walk on a road towards Stenhammar's castle. Edwin Ericsson played accordion and Thunman improvised the first lines of "We go over dew-fresh mountain" (which was later changed to "dew-sprinkled").

The origins of the melody are also disputed as some believe that it is a folk song from Hälsingland, while Thunman himself said that he received the melody from his grandmother and thus believed that it was from Gästrikland. Edwin Ericsson, on the other hand, claims that it was he who composed the melody. Herman Sör Carlsson wrote in an article in Upsala Nya Tidning in 1990 that the chorus "fallera" is a later addition and that in the original text the final words are repeated in the verse as: ''Vi gå över daggstänkta berg, berg, berg''.

The text was published in 1906 in the Christmas edition of the magazine Strix, with text and music by Abraham Lundquist's publishing house 1908, and in the collection "Den svenska frihetsvisan och andra sånger vid hembygdsmöten" ("The Swedish freedom song and other songs for homeland associations" published by the Norrland students' educational association in Uppsala (1908), later also by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in ''Vita bandets sångbok'' (1915) and in Nu ska vi sjunga movement with the text "Im Frühtau zu Berge". The first text version in German is a translation of unknown author and was published in 1917. In 1924 a new version of the song was published by Walther Hensel. From the middle of the 1920s the song appeared in many German song books, including in a song book for the Hitler Youth.

Recordings

An early recording was made by Oscar Bergström in October 1908, published by the record company Scandinavian gramophone in Stockholm entitled ''Gångsång'' ("Walking Song").

The song has also been recorded in English, by Alice Babs and Svend Asmussen on the album ''Scandinavian Songs of Alice Babs & Svend Asmussen'' 1964, titled "Through Valleys, Up Mountains".

A more recent but still simple recording is available, with both song and guitar play by Christer Lindén.

References

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External links

Performance by Christer Lindén

Swedish folk songs